If you’re going to pay homage to Prince, do it right. Janelle Monáe has nailed it (admittedly, with a little help from the Purple Genius himself). On the strength of this, ‘Dirty Computer’ will be one of the releases of 2018. Built around a guitar lick that nods in the direction of ‘Kiss’, and synth […]

There’s a scene in Curb Your Enthusiasm where Larry, looking perplexed, walks into a coffee shop. He’s struggling with what to order… the choice is so vast. After some reflection, he settles on a ‘vanilla bullshit’. Too much choice can be a bad thing. Access to a wide range of options limits your scope – […]

My top-ten album list for 2017 originally contained about 17 entries. That the final list doesn’t contain Spoon, St Vincent, Jane Weaver or Loyle Carner, in particular, underlines the quality of the ten I’ve culled it back to. Before getting to the list of albums, let’s just call out some stand out tracks for the […]

First of all, well done. If you’re reading this, you made it through 2016 alive. That in itself is an achievement. Much has been written, including here, about the losses we suffered last year. Prince. Bowie. Sharon Jones. A rationale electorate. A relatively stable World Order. But, I’ll keep this focused on the good stuff […]

I can’t believe that I’m sitting here, writing a post about the passing of Prince. That’s like losing a limb. A really funky limb. Let me try to tackle this by taking a major detour to earlier in the week. To a time when Planet Earth was still graced by His Royal Purpleness. I shared […]

OK, while we’re all sitting around waiting for Radiohead to release their new music, already, let’s talk Prince and let’s talk Roman GianArthur. Covering Radiohead is a dangerous game. Unless you’re Prince. If you’re Prince, covering Radiohead is not dangerous at all. For evidence, just watch him covering ‘Creep’ at Coachella. Prince can literally do […]

Sir Terry Wogan may not be the immediate jumping-off point for a post on this site. But, on the day where the news of his passing is shared, I’ll be honest – there was a pang of real sadness for me. Sir Terry was my breakfast radio DJ as a kid. I remember sitting at […]

It’s all been said. He was a genius. A real genius. He didn’t just break the rules, he ignored them. He refused to stand still. He stayed relevant. He turned death into performance art. There will never be another David Bowie. Yesterday was hard. It felt like an entire day spent in an out-of-body haze. […]

As LCD Soundsystem downed tools in early 2011, I shared some thoughts on how, as a band, they captured New York City. To me, they were as much New York as were Blondie, the Beastie Boys or The Strokes. I shared my thoughts on how they “left us an almost perfect body of work”. I […]

It’s been a quiet year for the freethinking movement; relocating from the US to the UK has knocked the arse out of any free time, and has put a serious dent in my ability to sit and write. It’s a shame, as 2015 has been jammed with outstanding music. This, the sixth compilation of my […]

I’ve been posting an annual ‘best of’ list for a few years now – this is the fifth run through. I can honestly say that this is the easiest year by far. That isn’t a reflection on the scarcity of good material. Rather, the ten albums listed below stand head and shoulders out there as […]

In these days of global warming, political and economic turmoil, Orwellian government surveillance and the very real threat of a new Coldplay album, there’s one issue that has crept onto my radar today, and which stands head and shoulders above all else in terms of importance. Let me explain… The World Cup is drawing closer. […]